Special Needs Transportation

School Bus Driver Allegedly Refuses to Release Student Having Seizure to Mother

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A student with epilepsy suffered a seizure on a school bus while the driver reportedly refused to release him to his mother because of a question over her identification, CBS New York reports.

Don Marie Birch, the mother of the 9-year-old boy, Delon, told the news source that even after she showed her ID and her son began to have a seizure, the driver would still not release him to her.

On Sept. 8, Delon was on his first bus ride home from a special-needs school, according to CBS New York. His backpack is marked with his condition and he wears a device on his wrist that he can swipe across a pacemaker in his chest that reduces the time of a seizure. However, Birch told the news source that Delon was too upset during the incident to remember how to swipe the device. Birch’s attorney told the news source that a police officer demanded that the driver let Delon off the bus and he was taken to the hospital.

At issue was Birch’s ID, which the driver reportedly told her she had to show to pick up her son per New York Department of Education policy. Birch’s attorney said that Birch did show her ID, Delon said that she was his mother, and that Delon’s grandmother was also present, on an approved list to pick up the boy, and showed her ID, and the driver still allegedly would not release Delon to them.

The New York Department of Education told the news source that it has “a detailed protocol in place to ensure students are safely picked up by an approved guardian,” the incident is being investigated, and it will make sure the matter is addressed quickly. CBS New York reported that the school bus company did not answer its questions.

Comments ( 4 )

Anthony Caponera

| about 4 months ago

In answer to Ms. McCoy, the mother and grandmother has firsthand knowledge of what to do when their son and grandchild began to have a seizure. This is why your heard the screams of the mother on her videotape because she and the grandmother were refused access to the child and could not come to his aid. This is something that was totally avoidable.
The whole incident prior to the child having a seizure may have provoked the seizure itself - - something that was avoidable.
The child had a vagal nerve stimulator implanted for his seizure disorder. The mother could not access the child to swipe the magnet which would have provided increased stimulation and potentially helped prior to and during the seizure. Again avoidable.
So, this inexcusable neglect is but a glimpse of what happens every day within the 5 boroughs of New York City to our special needs population. This is our "Willowbrook," its sub-human, and the higher-ups making very lucrative salaries on the tax payers have let this gone unabated ----that is, until now.
As Martin Luther King said, "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
Anthony Caponera, Chairman, Committee on Busing and Safety
Citywide Education Council District 75

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